The Void Smiles Back
by helnae
Summary: Wherein Starfield, the Taylor from the fanfic Starry Eyes, is summoned as Louise's familiar, and fun ensues. Well, 'fun' as defined by a humanoid portal to the cosmos whose abilities require self-mutilation to function, that is.
1. Arrival

For a moment, I was home.

Well, I wasn't actually in the house my father and I lived in, but the space through which I tumbled still felt achingly familiar and nostalgic. I didn't know how I'd gotten here, or where, exactly, 'here' was, but even so, part of me didn't want to leave. Kind of like how Aria described being inside me felt, now that I thought about it.

All too soon though, I found myself ejected, tumbling to a stop facedown on the ground. A detached portion of my mind idly noted that, were I a normal person, I would likely have ended up quite bruised, but as usual I'd barely noticed it.

It took a moment for the rest of my mind to catch up with what had just happened, but once it had I quickly pushed myself to my feet and patted myself down as I looked around. I was in what seemed to be a dissipating dust cloud, which blocked my view of my surroundings, but hopefully did the same to any potential assailants trying to see me. Speaking of which, I could hear a sizeable number of people talking beyond the dust in a language I couldn't understand. I tensed, then turned to face the speakers.

As I was doing so, my self-examination revealed that I was mostly in costume, except for some reason I still had my face attached. My good eyes were in, but they weren't Aria's eyes, and my mouth was my own. Not so great if I was about to get attacked, but I could work with it.

I unclipped one of my folding knives from my belt but didn't open it yet. As the dust continued to clear, I murmured, "Aria, Melody, Rest? Are you there?"

A groan from within me made me smile in relief, and my smile widened when Aria spoke. "I… what happened? I feel weird…"

My smile faded at her words. "Are you alright? I mean, you don't sound like you are, but…"

"Taylor! Um, I . . . I don't know how to describe this, but it seems to be going away pretty quickly," she replied.

"Okay. Um. We might be in for a fight, here, so will you be able to help me, like, right now?"

Melody spoke up before Aria could reply. "If what she is feeling is anything like what I am feeling, I would have to say no." I winced slightly at how under-the-weather she sounded, as strange as it was to apply the phrase to any of my friends.

"Rest?" I asked quietly. "How're you doing?" The only reply I got was an indecipherable mess of noise, which at once made me feel relief that she was still with me, and concern for her health.

A drop in the volume of people talking outside the dust cloud drew my attention outward, and I found the cloud to be almost gone. I could see people, now, and they saw me, if their staring was any indication. The majority of the people I could see were grouped a good few dozen feet away, but two were a good bit closer. One was an older, balding man in a robe carrying some kind of staff like a wizard from a fantasy novel, while the other…

Pink was the word that first came to mind. Her hair was an undeniably bright pink, and judging from the lack of visibly different roots, she'd probably dyed it quite recently.

I blinked in disbelief for a moment before taking in the rest of her. She was almost certainly rather young, judging from her height and build, she wore a cape of sorts that was secured at the collar by a brooch inscribed with a pentagram, and in one hand she held what could only be called a wand. Her face was a picture of disbelief as she stared at me, and I met her gaze, wondering if I'd somehow been transported into the midst of a group of LARPers.

The previously silent crowd in the background soon started shouting what, despite the language barrier, were obviously insults. The expression of the girl before me quickly twisted into a furious scowl, and she shouted something back at them to little effect. The man said something to her, and she snapped back at him before starting to approach me, only for her eyebrow to start twitching when I started backing away in response.

"Okay, um, look. I don't know what any of you are saying," I said nervously, holding my hands up in front of me. The man's eyes quickly focused on the still-folded knife in my hand, and he tensed subtly. "I'm just, ah, gonna go, okay?" My retreat got a little faster, and I glanced around for an escape route.

The pink-haired girl started to run towards me, shouting something at my while she tried to catch up with me. "What the hell do you want with me?" I shouted as I turned to flat out run away.

Or rather, I tried, only to stumble to my knees as the ground turned to watery mud, then hardened around my legs, effectively trapping everything below mid-thigh. "Uh, girls?" I said, feeling rather freaked out. "I could really use your help right now."

I watched the pink girl come around in front of me, flushed and breathing heavily. The man, who must have been in much better shape than her, came to stand by her side not long after. He gave me a considering look before pointing his staff at me and saying a few words. My eyes widened as I realized that he was likely the parahuman who had trapped me, and I reflexively raised my arms in front of my face in preparation for whatever he was about to do.

"-rstand me now?"

I carefully opened an eye and glanced around my arms to see him once again resting his staff on the ground. "I, I'm sorry, what?"

The man smiled. "Oh, good, it worked." Turning to the pink-haired girl, he gestured to me and said, "Now, Miss Vallière, complete the ritual, if you would."

"Wait, what ritual?" I asked, a note of panic in my voice as she nodded and started to approach me once again. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"The ritual to make you my familiar, commoner," the girl said. Stopping within arm's reach of me, she closed her eyes, murmured something I couldn't quite make out, then started to lean in towards me.

No. Fuck this.

With a click, my knife unfolded, and I saw a look of alarm on the man's face as I slashed at this girl. She'd evidently heard my knife opening, as her eyes started to open, but it was too late for her to even flinch away in time.

I, of course, had no practice using a knife as an actual weapon, so it wasn't too great of a surprise when the only damage I managed to do was cut her shirt a bit before the blade bounced off of her brooch. In fact, I felt a bit of relief that I hadn't actually injured her. Even so, she still flinched away, giving me a little room to work with. I was still stuck in the ground, of course, so I quickly pressed the blade against my throat. "Girls!"

Before I could open a cut for Aria, the man's staff flashed out, knocking the blade from my hand. He and the girl were looking at me with near identical expressions of horror. A detached part of me noted that the laughter and jeering from the crowd behind me had gone silent.

"... Why?" The pink girl's voice was thick with horror, with a touch of despondency. "Is, is the idea of being my familiar that awful to you?" She covers her mouth with her hands, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"You tell me," I spat with a surprising amount of venom in my voice. "I don't even know what you mean by 'familiar'. All I know is that I'm in a strange place, trapped in the ground, and you want to do something weird to me!"

Confusion joins the horror on their faces. "But then, why were you trying to kill yourself?" the man asked.

Now it was my turn to be confused. "But I wasn't…" My fingers traced my throat and suddenly realization dawned. "Oh. Um." I had the grace to look embarrassed. "Well, this is awkward."

The two glanced at one another, and the girl sighed. "Of course. The one time I succeed in summoning something, it's a commoner, and a crazy one at that."

"Hey, I can hear you, you know, " I said in a vaguely offended tone. "Now, would it be too much to ask for some help getting out of this mess?" I gestured at my trapped legs.

They glance at one another again, and my irritation grows a tad. Finally, the man looked at me and said, "Miss, the Springtime Summoning Ritual is sacred. The being summoned by a mage is destined to be that mage's familiar. It-"

"So, what," I interrupted scathingly, "just because I appeared, you're going to force me, against my will, to be this girl's 'familiar', whatever that means? And, seriously, mages? Magic doesn't exist."

The girl gave me an incredulous and angry glare. "Now see here!" she started, only to stop when the man placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Calm, Miss Vallière." Fixing his gaze on me, he said, "Claims that magic isn't real aside, our customs require that whatever is summoned by the ritual become the summoner's familiar. Now, I don't like the thought of forcing you, so is there anything we could give you or do for you that would make you more cooperative?"

I held his gaze for a few moments before looking down. "I just want to go home…"

I could almost hear him frown as he said, "I don't know if there is any way to reverse the ritual, unfortunately. That said-"

"Oh, by the Founder!" the girl interrupted, startling me into looking up again. She crossed her arms. "Look, if you agree to become my familiar, I promise on my honor as a noble that I shall do everything in my power to find a way to send you home." Looking to the side, she muttered, "Maybe then I'll be able to summon a better familiar…"

I eyed her warily. She seemed quite sincere in her promise, to my ears, at least, but even so… "What does becoming a familiar even entail?"

"As my familiar, you will be my companion and guardian. I'll be able to see through your eyes, and you'll gather reagents for me," she recited.

Frowning, I said, "Well, that doesn't seem that bad." I paused. "Honestly, I almost expected you to say I'd be your mind-controlled slave or something."

The girl made a face at that. "What? No!" She took a breath. "Now, the ritual requires that I kiss you. Are you okay with that?"

I only had to think about it for a moment before nodding. I mean, it's not like I was saving my first kiss for anyone like someone out of a cliche and cringe-inducing novel. "I guess that would be fine."

"Okay." The girl drew in a steadying breath before saying, "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, bless this humble being, and make her my familiar." And with that, she leaned down to give me a peck on the lips.

For a moment I just sat there, unimpressed. "Well, that wasn't so ba-"

 _ **Ow.**_


	2. Brand

_It hurts! It hurts it hurts it hurts it actually hurts!_

My teeth were clenched, a muffled scream hissing through them as I hunched over, clutching at my chest. Ever since I'd gotten my powers, ever since my body had changed, pain had, at most, been distant, an afterthought. But this… it was like someone was carving a design down my sternum, slowly, with a red-hot, razor-sharp poker, and the pain wasn't dulled at all!

Then I noticed my other scream, deeper than the first, muffled by my face, but still quite loud. It also wasn't restricted by such things as lungs, so when my normal scream trailed off, it kept going. I could hear my friends calling to me, trying to get my attention, but I couldn't make out what they were saying over the agony.

Eventually, after what felt like hours, the torture ended, leaving just a dull, burning ache behind. Gradually, I managed to uncurl enough to glare up at Louise, who was looking a little shell-shocked as she stared down at me. "You never said this would happen, that it would hurt so much, you bitch!" I hissed at her. She flinched back as if I'd struck her.

"I, I'm sorry, I didn't know," was all she managed before trailing off, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy.

In that moment, two sides of me fought. One side was ashamed to have lashed out at her like that, while the other, stronger side, hated her with a fiery intensity for all she'd put me through these past few… was it only minutes? In any case, my wrath must've shown through, because she covered her mouth with her hands again and started backing away.

As quickly as it had ignited, my rage burnt out, leaving me feeling tired and empty. With a sigh, I let my head fall forward again. My friends tried to get my attention again, and I murmured to them to calm down.

Glancing up at the sound of movement, I saw the man walk past me, towards the crowd. "Alright, students!" he called out to them. "The ceremony is over, now. Time to head back." The crowd grumbled back at him, but I wasn't paying any attention to them. Instead, I had pulled my shirt away from my chest to look at where the pain had been.

Down my sternum, traced out in spidery script, were letters in an odd script. Even if they hadn't been upside-down from my perspective, I doubted I'd be able to decipher them. Or, at least, I assumed they were upside down to me.

"So," I said coldly as I let my shirt fall back into place. "You've branded me." I glared up at Louise again, and apparently that was the last straw. She turned and ran, stumbling a few times in her effort to get as far away from me as possible.

I heard a sigh from behind me, and I turned awkwardly to focus my glare on the man from earlier. "Was that really necessary?" he asked, giving me a disapproving look.

"Hey, why don't you try getting something burned into your chest and see what it does to your mood," I growled. "Now, are you going to help me get free of this or what?"

"Oh?" The man's face lit up with interest. "May I have a look at your familiar mark?"

My glare intensified, and I covered my chest with my arms. "Fucking perv," I muttered. The man's expression froze, and a heated blush spread across his face. Then, his words really registered with me. "Wait, you knew this would happen? And you didn't warn me?"

"Uh…"

I sighed. "Whatever. Just get me free already."

"What? Oh, right! Sorry." With a few words and a wave of his staff, the earth holding my legs in place liquified again. I sank in a little more, but the mud wasn't that deep, and I was able to stand and walk out before it hardened again.

My jeans, socks, and shoes remained covered with mud, of course, and while it was already hardening and flaking off as I moved, the garments would still need a good washing. Taking the chance, I took a good look around the place.

I took note of the towers and walls around me, but what I was really looking for was a gate. I made a mental note of its location before returning my gaze to the man. "Say, you never told me your name."

"Mmm? Oh! Pardon me. My name is Jean Colbert, a professor at this academy." His expression turned slightly hopeful. "Might I know your name, Miss?"

With the mood I was in, the urge to break that minor hope proved too much. "No." His face fell. "Now, with all you lot have put me through today, I think it'd be the least you could do to get me a clean pair of pants."

"What?" With an exasperated huff, I gestured to my jeans. "Oh, trousers. Yes, I can lead you to where to get some."

"Well, then. Lead the way."

 **.o.o.o.**

He led me to a door inside the central tower, beyond which a matronly servant (an actual servant! Wearing an actual maid outfit!) was folding clothing. He spoke a few words to her, and she bowed and gave me an appraising glance, wincing at the state of my jeans. She puttered off, then returned with a pair of brown pants that looked handmade. On that note, almost everything about this place looked pretty old-fashioned. The lighting seemed like it might be electric, but I was starting to have my doubts.

In any case, I asked if there was anywhere I could change, giving Jean a glance that the servant caught. Without hesitating, she shooed him out the door, closed it behind him, then went back to her work with her back to me. After a bit of encouragement from her, and getting assurances that she wouldn't peek (which made her chuckle), I took off my shoes, socks, and jeans. Surprisingly, very little mud had gotten on my skin, and it was easy enough to brush it off.

The pants I'd been given proved to be of the perfect length for me, though a little loose in the waist. Nothing my belt couldn't fix, of course, but even so. When I asked her what I should do with my soiled garments, she simply gestured to an empty hamper and told me to leave them there. The sound of the nails in my feet clicking on the stone floor drew a few curious glances from her, but before she could ask, I was out the door.

Jean was waiting outside. "All set?" he asked, before his eyes caught my bare feet. "Wait, don't you need shoes?"

"No, I'll be fine," I replied. Turning away from him, I started walking back the way we'd come.

"Wait!" He called after me, hurrying to catch up. "Where are you going?"

"Out that gate I saw," I replied. He started to protest, but his words died when I fixed him with a look. "I need some time to myself, okay?" Turning away from him, I continued, "Don't worry, I'm not running away. It's not like I have anywhere else I can go."


	3. Nail

Once outside the gate, I spotted a nearby forest and headed towards it. From there, it wasn't long before I found a little clearing in the trees with a large boulder in its center. It suited my needs, so I went over to recline atop the rock.

"Hey, girls?" I said after a few moments of lounging.

"We're here, Taylor. We're feeling much better," Aria said, her voices subdued. "More importantly, though, are you alright? What happened?"

I sighed. "It… I don't even know, okay? We're somehow in a different place because I was summoned to be some girl's familiar for whatever reason. The process involved getting branded, which I was most definitely not warned about, and it hurt! A lot! Nothing hurts anymore, so why did this?"

"Um. That would explain what I felt from you, I suppose," Melody said slowly. "But the question still stands: are you alright?"

Letting out a long breath, I closed my eyes, idly noting that when I faced the sun, its light didn't turn red anymore when going through my eyelids. "I… no. I'm not okay. I have no idea where we are, or how to get home. Hell, we might be on Earth Aleph or something for all I know."

"That's not great. Anyway, what's this?" Aria asked, and suddenly, I felt a tiny sliver of her poke out of my chest and enter my control.

"Wait, what?" I quickly sat up and pulled my shirt away from my chest again. Sure enough, a bit of Aria's flesh was poking out through one of the lines of the brand. I stared. "... It goes all the way through?"

"Looks like," Aria replied. "Could I have that back now?"

"Oh!" I released my control. "Right. Sorry."

"It's fine," Aria reassured me as she withdrew herself.

I smiled, and was about to say something when Melody interrupted me. "Taylor, some people are coming."

In an instant I was alert, trying to catch a sign of the approaching people. Sure enough, I heard leaves crunching under their feet as they approached from the same direction I'd come from. Slowly, I eased one of my spare knives off of my belt and palmed it.

They soon came into view: two girls, dressed in the same outfit Louise had been wearing. Fellow students of hers? One was tall, maybe even taller than me, with dark skin, long red hair, and an irritatingly large bosom. The other was similar in height and build to Louise, though her shockingly blue hair was cut mutch shorter. Seriously, was dying one's hair weird colors in fashion here or something? Anyway, in one hand she carried a staff that seemed far too big for her, and in the other, an open book. They were talking as they walked, or rather, the tall one was talking, while her companion occasionally said a word or two.

Between them scurried what looked to be a giant red lizard, and… um. Its tail was on fire.

I blinked. Was, was this another familiar, like…

Shaking my head, I looked around for the other girl's familiar, but couldn't see anything that fit the bill. That meant it was probably either too small to be easily noticed, or… or too big to fit through the trees.

Out of those heading for my clearing, it was the lizard who noticed me first. Its eyes locked on me, and its pace quickened, leaving the girls behind. Their conversation was apparently put on hold as they watched it scamper off, and only then did they notice me. The blue-haired girl had essentially no visible reaction, while the tall one's eyes widened dramatically, then narrowed in a smirk.

The lizard finally reached me and craned its neck to sniff at the foot I'd left dangling off the boulder. After a moment, though, its eyes bulged almost comically, and it turned tail to run off and hide behind the taller girl. "Aww, what's the matter, Flame?" she asked in that cutesy, high-pitched tone some people take with pets. "Did the mean lady scare you?" I scowled at her. She giggled and leaned down to scratch Flame's head, and while it leaned into the scratchings, its eyes remained wide and focused on me.

Straightening, she smiled at me again and put one of her hands on her hip. "And who might you be? I feel like I've seen you somewhere before, but…"

"Familiar," the smaller girl said, looking at me over her book.

The redhead snapped her fingers. "That's right! You're the commoner that the Zero summoned!" My scowl deepened, and her smirk returned. "Or should I say, 'summoned'. It's not like someone with zero magical talent like her could actually summon a familiar. So, how much did she pay you?"

Ignoring the question, I asked, "What's with you people and magic?"

Her mouth dropped open in surprise before she let out a laugh. "What? Are you saying that you don't know about magic? I thought everyone did!" She raised her hand do cover her mouth as she giggled. "Magic is what sets nobles apart from commoners. The haves frome the have-nots, as it were."

Her words grated on me, and my budding dislike for her grew. "So how does one get 'magic'?" I asked coldly.

"Why, you have to be born with it, of course!" she replied. Mentally, I decided to chalk it up to 'parahuman powers, but different, pending investigation'. "All that aside, I am rather curious about something."

"Yes?" I asked, irritation bleeding into my voice.

"What are those shiny things on the bottom of your foot?"

I considered for a moment how to answer that, before deciding to go with the truth. "They're nails."

Her expression froze. "E-excuse me?"

In lieu of answering verbally, I drew my foot towards me and tilted it so they could still see the nails. Then, I gripped one, and slowly, ever-so-slowly, pulled it out.

The redhead grew progressively paler as the nail emerged. "B-by the Founder…" she breathed, before clapping a hand over her mouth.

Her companion's reaction was not as dramatic, merely a widening of her eyes. I simply enjoyed their expressions, and how, when I eased the nail back into my foot, the redhead turned and ran off into the trees, the lizard hot on her heels. The blue-haired girl stared at me for a few more moments, then closed her book and went off after the other girl.

"You know what, girls?" I said once I judged they were far enough away. "I think I'm feeling better, now."

 **.o.o.o.**

When those girls failed to return, I decided to just relax with my face off, letting Aria and Rest out to explore. Rest snapped up all the birdcalls and other forest sounds she could, while Aria sampled some grass before snaking off to gnaw on a tree.

Eventually, though, it started to get darker out, which I took as a signal to recall my friends and put my face back on. The return trip to the academy proved to be quick, and soon I was on the path to the main gate.

Once I got close enough, though, I saw her: a small girl, sitting against the wall beside the gate, hugging her legs to her chest as she pressed her face against her knees. Her long, pink hair was unmistakable. It was Louise. The girl who'd branded me.

… The girl I'd made run away, possibly crying.

Sighing, I adjusted my path towards her, making no effort to be quiet. When I got close enough for her to hear my footsteps, her head shot up to look at me, her eyes almost heartbreakingly hopeful, and a small part of me was grateful that I wouldn't have to break this particular hope.

Her face went through a complicated range of emotions before settling on a carefully controlled, neutral expression. She stood and brushed off her clothing, then moved to meet me.

"You came back!" she said hesitantly. "I, I thought you might have… left."

"Why would I leave?" I asked. "Sure, I could go somewhere else, probably start a new life, but, well, that wouldn't be home. You promised me you'd help me find a way home, so as far as I'm concerned, you're my best bet so far for getting there."

She nodded along, looking a little relieved, until part of what I'd said registered. "Wait. What do you mean by 'so far'?"

I shrugged. "Look, someone out there might be better equipped to help me, so I'd like to keep my options open rather than tying myself to just one method. That said, my list of people I think could help me currently has only one name on it."

Her eyes narrowed. "I see. So you're just going to be a mercenary, working for the highest bidder, whose coin is a way home?"

"Essentially, yes."

Her eyebrow twitched. "Have you no honor? If someone who can pay better comes along, will you just abandon me?"

"Maybe? Consider it incentive to do your best to find me a way."

She seemed about ready to burst with righteous anger, and for a moment I feared that I had made a miscalculation. Then she took a deep breath, and then another, and when she looked at me again, she was calm. "Okay, then. If that's how you want to play it, then I must ask: how do you intend to repay my efforts? Just looking at you, I can't imagine you'd have much to offer."

"Well, I doubt I'd be much good at getting you reagents, so that's out. You said something about familiars acting as a guardian, correct?" She nodded. "Well, good news is, I can do that."

She looked at my thin arms dubiously. "Are you sure about that?"

"I am. I have some special skills that would serve quite well."

"And what skills might they be?" Uh-oh, her eyebrow was starting to twitch again.

I glanced around. "It might be best not to talk about this where just anyone might be able to hear."

She let out a long-suffering sigh. "Fine. We'll talk in my room." She turned to lead the way, only to pause. "What is your name? I can't keep thinking of you as 'Familiar'. I doubt you'd like that."

I took a moment to consider. I didn't really feel comfortable with giving her my real name, even though there was no way for her to exploit it that I knew of. Still… "Just call me Starfield for now, okay?"

She gave me an odd look. "That's a weird name."

"Tell you what, when we get to your room and we have our talk, I'll tell you why I want you to call me that, okay?"

Sighing, she started walking again. "Okay."


	4. Threat

As we walked, I took a brief detour to re-acquire the first knife I'd used here. It was easy enough to find, just laying on the grass a couple feet from the discolored patch of ground that had gotten liquified. Despite being a cheap piece of crap as far as knives went, it appeared undamaged, and so I folded it up and stowed it with all the rest of my knives.

… Look, I just wanted to have options when it came to cutting myself open, okay? I don't have a problem. I'm not even a collector. I just have a combat knife attached to the back of my belt, and… how many folding knives?

Whatever.

"Why do you have so many knives, anyway?" Louise asked as we resumed our trek to her room.

My eye twitched. "I'll tell you when we get to your room, okay?"

"Fine." Louise huffed softly, but the rest of the walk was quiet. Well, for the most part, at least.

By this time, the sun had pretty much set, but the lighting was sufficient for us to find our way. I looked towards what I assumed was the east, only to stop dead in my tracks as my mind stalled.

Not one, but two moons were rising. One was large and green, while the other was smaller and red, but both looked larger, or closer, than the one moon Earth Bet had.

"O-okay, then," I murmured, a tad shakily. "I'm further from home than I thought." Shaking my head to clear it, I turned back to see that Louise had stopped and was looking at me quizzically. I just shook my head again at her unspoken question, and she rolled her eyes.

Eventually, after entering a tower and going up a few flights of steps, she stopped in front of a door, opened it, and motioned me inside. Within were the sorts of furnishings one would expect to find in a girl's room at a boarding school, such as a bed, a desk, and a wardrobe. The cot on the floor at the foot of the bed seemed a little out of place, though, as did a few scattered bits of straw near a set of chains bolted to the wall.

Following my gaze, Louise blushed. "Um, I, I thought I'd be getting an animal of some sort as my familiar, not… not a person."

She carefully stepped around the cot and sat on her bed. I took the cue to pull the chair out from the desk and turn it so I could sit facing her. "So," I drawled, pulling out one of my knives to open and fold the blade repeatedly in a motion I found surprisingly calming. "You wanted to know what sorts of skills I might have, correct?"

Louise's eyes were fixed nervously on the knife I was playing with. "Um, yeah. Among other things. I assume your skills have to do with knives or weapons?"

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Actually, I have next to no skill or experience with knife-fighting. No, I just have them so that I can cut stuff, and I have so many because, well…" I shrugged. "In any case, the cutting is what helps with my actual skills."

Louise frowned at me and motioned for me to continue. I grinned at her. "You remember… actually, it might be best to just show you. Less confusion that way."

As her frown turned into a scowl, I flipped the knife open and, before she could react, plunged it as far as its little blade would go just to the side of where my cheekbone would've been. Pretty close to my eye, all told.

Louise's expression froze for a moment until her brain was able to process what I'd just done. Then her eyes went almost comically large, and she let out an ear-piercing shriek.

I winced at her volume, then quickly got up and strode across the room to clap a hand over her mouth, muffling her cries, but the damage was already done.

Within mere moments, someone was pounding at the door. "Louise? What's going on?" shouted a girl. When Louise didn't answer fast enough for her liking, she cried, "I'm coming in, okay?" I barely had the time to pull the knife from my face before the door was thrown open to reveal the redhead I'd met in the forest, wearing a rather revealing nightgown and a concerned expression.

Her eyes took in Louise's wide, tear-filled eyes, then my hand over her mouth, then the knife in my hand, before finally settling on my face. Her expression turned damn near murderous, and she pulled a wand from… somewhere, and shouted, "What in Brimir's name do you think you're doing!?"

I straightened up, taking my hand off of Louise's mouth in the process, but before I could do anything more, her wand was trained on me."Don't. Move," she hissed, then used her free hand to beckon to Louise.

"K-Kirche…" Louise said softly, but the redhead didn't react.

"What're you planning to do with that, 'Kirche'?" I asked, scowling at her.

"I'll burn you if you so much as make a move towards her, you freak," she replied through clenched teeth. In a softer tone, she said, "Come here, Louise."

"Kirche…"

I arched an eyebrow at her. I was pretty sure the most a little fire would do to me was ruin my clothes, and maybe damage some of my skin enough that I'd have to cut the damaged bits off and re-grow them, so her threat wasn't that intimidating. I was mostly just pissed off. Sounds of people moving could be heard in the hallway beyond her, but I ignored them. "Just a little fire? Is that all you amount to?" Slowly, almost mockingly, I brought my knife up to my neck for the second time that day, ready to unleash Aria.

Her eyes widened, her teeth grit together audibly, and her wand shook a little. "Why you Founder-forsaken-"

"Kirche! Starfield! Stop!"

Both of us blinked in surprise and looked at Louise, who was standing with her fists clenched at her sides as she glared at us. "Kirche, stop threatening my familiar! Starfield, stop provoking her!"

Glancing at the redhead, I saw her expression go from righteous, if confused, fury, to simply befuddled. "B-but Louise, that bitch was standing over you with a knife! She's the kind of freak who puts nails in her own feat, who knows what she was planning to do to you?"

"She… wait, nails? What?" Louise looked at me with a lost expression, before shaking her head. "Just… why do you even care?"

"What? I, of course I care! I care about your wellbeing, Louise."

Louise's expression turned surprisingly dark. "Well, you've had a funny way of showing it," she spat venomously, making Kirche flinch. "Just, just get out." She looked beyond Kirche, to where a few other girls were peering into the room. "All of you, just, leave."

"B-but Louise…" The redheaded bitch was actually starting to look a little hurt. I took the opportunity to let my knife fall from my neck.

"Out!" The little, pink-haired girl marched up to Kirche and started to physically push her out the door. Once she had, she slammed the door shut and locked it with a key, then returned to her bed and let herself fall onto it face down with a sigh.

I returned to the chair. "Well. That happened." When I got no response from Louise, I tried again. "Do you want to continue from where we were interrupted?"

"Not right now," was her muffled reply. "Maybe in a bit. Just let me rest a little."

"Very well."


	5. Scar

To my surprise, Louise didn't fall asleep after that. Instead, after about fifteen minutes, she rolled over onto her back and sat up. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, she looked at me and said, "Okay, I'm ready. What were you going to show me?"

Grinning, I simply flicked my knife open again and slipped it into the cut it had made. Then I pulled it down, around, up, and over, and pulled my face off.

Evidently Louise wasn't as ready as she thought she was, as she was sitting there, staring at me wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Thankfully, though, there was no scream this time.

As she stared, though, her eyes started to unfocus and glaze over in a reaction that was becoming somewhat familiar to me. I let it go on for a little while before getting fed up, putting my knife down on the desk, and snapping my fingers right in front of her face.

She flinched, blinking rapidly. "Wh-what was that?"

"Sometimes that happens to people when they first see what lies beneath my skin," I said in my deeper, more hollow-sounding other voice, which caused her to twitch when she heard it.

"How can you…" Suddenly, her eyes lit up in realization. "So that's what I heard during the ritual! You have two voices!"

If I could still grin, I would have. "That's what you're focusing on? Not the fact that I can survive without my face, or anything like that?"

Louise blushed. "Don't make fun of me," she muttered, letting her gaze drop.

"Oh. Sorry about that. In any case, as you can no doubt see, my body is, shall we say, different." She snorted in a most unladylike fashion. "It makes it very, very hard to actually injure me, and I can use all that space for storage as well. But that's not all! I have a few friends in there as well." Under my non-existent breath, I murmured, "Come on out, Aria."

The other girl raised an eyebrow at me. "What, do you keep people in… what in the Founder's name is that?"

The eyeball-tipped tentacle that emerged from my face to look around confirmed my suspicions. "This is Aria, the first friend I made after… after I changed." I didn't take control of the tentacle until Aria formed a mouth and tried to have a nibble of the desk.

"S-so, wait, you weren't always, uh, like that?"

"No. After an… incident that I don't want to talk about, I was changed, but before that I was normal flesh-and-blood."

"So you're not a demon I mean I'm sorry please ignore that…"

I looked at her sharply, then let my gaze soften, even though she couldn't tell I was doing either. "I was, and still am, human."

"Sorry…"

I sighed, the sound of which made Louise shudder. "It's fine. In any case, this is Aria. Say hi, Aria."

A slim tendril split off from the main tentacle to wave at Louise, then stretched over to give her a hug. Her eyes grew quite large, and she went rather stiff, only to let out a sigh of relief once I gave Aria a subtle hint to end the hug.

"Okay," Louise said, a little shrilly, and I noticed that she'd been subtly edging backwards on her bed, away from me. "What can it do?"

"She can… well, mostly just shapeshift and eat stuff, but she's very nice and helpful. My other friends are named Melody and Rest, and they're really good friends, too. Melody can help me fly, and Rest is good for keeping things quiet." I paused, tapping my chin. "Rest probably could've helped maintain our privacy, but, well, I didn't get a chance to let her out before you screamed."

Louise was silent for a few moments. "So, each time you looked like you were about to slit your own throat, you were just…"

"I was just preparing to let out Aria, were it needed."

"Okay." She took a breath. "Okay. This is a lot to take in. So, wait, can you put your face back on?"

"I can." To demonstrate, I brought my face up to where it came from, held it there, and healed the edges together until it could stay on without me supporting it. Blinking my eyes, I looked at Louise as the seams continued to heal. She seemed a little less tense, now that my face was on. "Is there anything else you'd like to know?"

Louise stared at the fading seams for a moment, before shaking her head. "No. Nothing that I can think of right now. Let's just go to bed, okay."

I looked at the cot again as she got up from her bed, and she grimaced. "Sorry, I just… It's the best I could do on such short notice."

"It's fine, I can live with it."

"Okay." Louise walked over to the only light in the room and extinguished it, and, under the light of the moons (two of them!) she got under her covers. I followed suit, laying down on the cot, laying my head on its pillow, and covering myself with the blanket provided. I didn't exactly need it, but, well, force of habit, I guess.

"Good night," Louise murmured.

"Good night."

 **.o.o.o.**

Somehow I managed to sleep, and I slept pretty well, all told. I was awakened by the tolling of a bell in the morning, and for a few moments after I just lay there with my eyes open.

At the sound of Louise groaning and shifting in the bed above me, I decided to sit up and fold my blanket neatly. With that done, I got up and walked around to the side of her bed to check on her. She must have heard my footsteps, because she rolled over to glare balefully, if wearily, up at me. I winced when I saw the bags under her eyes, and despite the residual resentment from yesterday I asked, "Are you okay?" Her glare intensified. "Well, that answers that, I suppose."

Straightening up, I walked over to the door, then paused. "I'll wait outside for you to get up and get dressed, okay?" A muffled grumbling was my only answer, though it seemed to be one of assent. Nodding to myself, I unlocked the door and went out into the hall.

I leaned against the wall beside the door for a few minutes as I waited, idly opening and closing my knife to pass the time. At one point, a door closer to the stairs to let a girl out into the hall, and she stopped as she saw me to stare at me, though her gaze quickly fell to my knife. I stared at her in turn, and eventually she glanced up long enough to meet my eyes. Whatever she saw there, she let out a small and amusing 'eep' before hurrying off down the stairs.

Another door opened further down the hall, and through it walked Kirche. The closing and opening of my knife evidently drew her attention, and once her eyes settled on me, they narrowed. She stalked over to me, and when she got close enough, she hissed, "I don't know what you've done to our little Zero, but I swear on everything that is holy that I will find out what it is, and familiar or no, there will be Hell to pay."

I was honestly at a loss for how to respond, but I didn't want her to know that, so I simply arched an eyebrow at her and continued to play with my knife.

Louise chose that moment to exit her room, and you couldn't help but notice the state she was in. While her clothes were fresh and her hair was brushed, the bags under her eyes seemed almost more pronounced than they were before. She seemed to sag a bit, and to top it all off, and almost palpable aura of weariness surrounded her.

"Did you get any sleep at all last night, Louise?" someone asked, and it took me a moment to realize that that 'someone' was me.

She slowly shook her head, then glared at me. "No thanks to you," she says bitingly. After a moment, she seemed to realize something, and turned that glare on Kirche. "Don't say it."

"What?" Kirche asked with what could only be honest confusion.

"Whatever." Louise turned towards the stairs. "Come on, Starfield. Let's just go."

"Where to?" I asked as I moved to join her, leaving the redhead behind.

"To get breakfast, obviously."


	6. Imbibe

I looked at the food before me, then at the knife I was still playing with, then back to the food.

"What, are you not going to eat?" Louise grumbled from across the table. She looked like she might fall asleep in her meal at any moment, and was only preventing herself from doing so through sheer force of will.

"Well, technically, I don't think I actually need to eat anymore, really," I replied, glancing around the dining hall. Quite a few of the students, and a few of the staff, were giving the two of us glances or outright staring at us. "Aria, however, really enjoys eating, so I want to let her have this. Thing is, of the two more subtle methods, the one where she replaces my mouth with hers would require that I cut out the inside of my mouth, and that wouldn't exactly be subtle."

Louise twitched, her hand clenching her fork tightly enough that her knuckles went white. She glared up at me, and her glare deepened when she saw the amused half-smile on my face. "Don't do that," she finally said.

"Well, that really only leaves me with one option, then." Without elaborating further, I brought my hands under the table and cut open my palm. Bringing them back above the table, I murmured, "Could I have a tentacle, Aria?"

Louise twitched again as I said that, then shuddered and looked away as a finger-width tendril squirmed its way out of the incision. I split off a small portion and created an eye at its tip, while the greater portion got a mouth. The eye looked around for a moment before spotting the food and staring at it, and I allowed the mouth to leap forward and start devouring the meal. The tendril bulged visibly as barely chewed chunks of food were drawn up it.

"So," I said conversationally over the sounds of Aria's enjoyment, "what are your plans for finding out how to send me home?"

Louise let out a defeated sigh. "The best I can think of is to just do a lot of reading in the library. With all the books in there, there's got to be at least something tangentially related. I'm probably the best student in this academy at actually studying," she added, brightening a bit with pride. Then she sighed again. "Of course, when it actually comes to casting the spell you need…"

I blinked. This seemed like a bit of a touchy subject to her, but I had to know. "What's wrong with casting the, um, 'spell'?"

She pushed her half-eaten breakfast to the side, then let her head fall to the table with a groan. After a moment, she quietly admitted, "I doubt I'll be able to cast it."

"Why?"

She moved her head so her chin was resting on the table in order to glare up at me. "I can't cast spells. No matter what spell I try, and believe you me, I've tried a lot, all I get is an explosion."

Yep, definitely a touchy subject. I had a sudden realization, and a small surge of sympathy. "Is that why they call you 'Zero'?"

Louise shot upright, her eyes practically burning holes in me. "Where did you hear that?" she hissed.

"That Kirche girl called you that while she was threatening me this morning before you came out of your bedroom," I replied. "The way she said it made it sound like a term of endearment, almost, but-"

"Endearment!?" she shrieked, drawing a lot of attention from the other students. Lowering her voice, she hissed, "That, that harlot has been nothing but a source of teasing and ridicule since I first got here! She even got almost all the other students to join in!"

"Oh." The parallels were unmistakable, and I felt genuine empathy start to sprout within me. "Um. I, ah, have some experience with being on the receiving end of that sort of thing, too."

Louise looked at me sharply, but she must've seen the sincerity on my face because her expression slowly softened. I closed my knife with a click, set it down on the table, and reached over to awkwardly place my hand over hers. She didn't say anything about my attempt to comfort her, but neither did she pull her hand away.

We sat like that for a little while, a bubble of calm amidst the din and the watchful eyes of the dining hall. The only thing that diverted my attention was when I had to stop Aria's cheeky attempt to eat the plate once she'd licked it clean.

"So," I began softly, breaking the silence, "what's the plan for today?"

She blinked at me in confusion for a moment before replying, "Today is a day off from classes so that we can bond with our familiars, but, um, we'll be spending it in the library, though, right?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't think we will." At her confused expression, I elaborated, "Look, you got no sleep last night, or, at least, next to none. You're practically dead on your feet. And if you need a more practical explanation, well, if you tried to do any research, you might miss or forget something vital to getting me home. So instead, you should probably try to get some rest, okay?"

"Okay."

"Well, well, isn't this touching," someone sneered, and I looked up to see a girl with long, blonde sausage curls and a frog of all things perched on her head smirking at Louise. She was flanked by two more girls in an manner eerily reminiscent of my bullies back home. I automatically started scowling at her. "The Zero and her quote-unquote 'familiar' getting all buddy-buddy."

"Go away, Montmorency," Louise growled. "I'm not in the mood right now."

"Oh, but I am! All I wanted to do was congratulate you on actually casting a spell correctly for once, even though you failed at doing the ritual how many times?" One of her sub-bitches turned her smirk on me, though it slid off of her face when she noticed Aria's tendril looking at her. She tugged on Montmorency's sleeve to get her attention, but the girl just shrugged her off, so focused was she on Louise.

"Aria, I'm going to need more of you," I murmured, the sound making the girl jump.

Louise turned in her seat to glare at Montmorency. "Leave, or I'll make you leave."

The blonde raised her hand to her mouth and laughed, even as her henchette tugged at her sleeve harder. "Why don't you leave, Zero? You don't belong at this academy, anyw- urk!"

That sound was the sound of a long tendril of Aria looping around her neck and pulling her towards me. Of course, the table was in the way, and it knocked the wind out of her before she was dragged over it. In the span of a moment, she was face-to-face with me with my hand at her throat, the tendril squeezing hard enough to make breathing more difficult for her, and maybe leave a bruise.

I let her wheeze there for a moment as I stared into her wide eyes. As I picked up my knife and started playing with it again, her eyes flickered to it, somehow grew even wider, then went back to me. Idly, I noted that the dining hall had gone rather quiet.

"You know," I drawled calmly, "There's this one thing I really dislike. Can you guess what it is?" She made her best attempt at shaking her head. I leaned in until our noses were almost touching. "I just cannot stand bullies."

A strangled whimper emerged from her throat, and I drew back and smiled. It didn't feel like a very nice smile. "Now then, have we reached an understanding?" She did her level best to nod as vigorously as she could. "Excellent." And with that, I uncoiled the tendril from around her neck and released her to lay on the table, coughing and clutching at her throat. Her minions seemed a little too frozen with surprise and fear to jump to her assistance.

I smiled sweetly at a wide-eyed Louise, and was about to say something when a hand clasped my shoulder. I turned to see a rather angry-looking Colbert glaring at me. "Miss Vallière, Miss?" he said in a voice that brooked no argument. "You two are coming with me to the Headmaster's office."


	7. Interlude: Louise

_Why, oh why did I have to summon her as my familiar?_ Louise bemoaned silently as the two of them followed Professor Colbert up the stairs. The man's neck and back seemed tense with what she presumed to be anger, but his steps were soft and controlled, as opposed to her own occasional missteps which she attributed to how exhausted she was. Starfield's feet clicked on the stone steps with each step she took, which made Louise remember the strange thing Zerbst had said last night about Starfield putting nails in her own feet.

Louise's tired gaze rose to the folding knife that her familiar held clutched in her hand but wasn't playing with at the moment. It, and all the other knives Starfield had like it, was strange to Louise, who had only ever seen knives and daggers with fixed blades. Starfield's knives, with their folding mechanisms, must have been made by a genius weaponsmith, and must have cost quite a pretty penny for the whole set.

Her gaze rose, and it took her a moment to realize that Starfield was looking back at her. She stumbled a little and looked away, blushing slightly, only to find her embarrassment interrupted by a jaw-crackingly huge yawn. When her mouth finally closed, she noticed the professor looking back at her quizzically, which made her blush harder.

Eventually, they found themselves in front of the door to the Headmaster's office. The professor raised his hand to knock on the door, and not long after a voice from within called out, "Enter," which they did.

Old Osmond, the headmaster of the academy, sat in a large chair behind an equally large desk, facing the door. The light from the windows in the wall behind him left his features partially in shadow, but it was easy enough to see him stroking his long, gray beard as he looked at the three of them.

Off to the side, the Headmaster's secretary, the green-haired Miss Longueville, sat behind a more modestly-sized desk. She had evidently been working on some paperwork before they arrived, but she set that aside and got out a fresh sheet of paper, presumably in preparation for writing down what the Headmaster needed her to regarding this visit.

Louise noticed Starfield giving Miss Longueville an odd look before the Headmaster cleared his throat, diverting their attention to him. "Good morning, Professor Colbert, Miss Vallière, and…" His eyes went from the professor, then to me, before finally landing on Starfield. "I don't believe we've met, yet."

"This is the familiar Miss Vallière summoned yesterday, the one I told you about. She hasn't told me her name yet-"

"You can call me Starfield," she interrupted, frowning at the professor, who returned the expression in kind.

"Yes, thank you. She-"

"She is the one you were complaining about for not letting you see the familiar runes to ascertain that the ritual was a success, correct?" the Headmaster interrupted.

The professor let out a sigh. "I wouldn't say I was 'complaining', but yes."

Headmaster Osmond looked at Starfield again. "Why was it that you refused to let him see them, Miss Starfield?"

She sighed. "Because they're right here," she said, tapping the center of her chest. Miss Longueville's eyes widened for a moment before being replaced by a smirk directed at Professor Colbert, whose ears were turning pink. Of course, the smirk was also gone after a moment.

"I see. Is there no way you could, say, draw them on a piece of paper?"

Shaking her head, she replied, "Unlikely." Then she adopted a thoughtful expression. "That said, I might be able to let him see them another way. Is there enough room in there for me to stand?" she asked, pointing at a door to what was likely a closet of some kind. The Headmaster nodded, and she went over to the door, opened it, and slipped inside, closing it behind her.

Louise waited with bated breath for something weird to happen, only to let the breath out when Starfield emerged not long after. Then she covered her face with a hand when she noticed the long, thin, pale strip dangling from her hand.

"Here you are!" Starfield said with a cheerful smirk as she handed the strip to the professor, who eagerly took it and looked at it with interest.

"This is… how did you copy the runes so quickly, and what is this material? It's rather soft."

"Oh, I didn't copy the runes," Starfield said as if it should be obvious. "Those are the original runes. I just cut them off." She opened her knife for emphasis, them closed it with a click. "Thanks for complimenting my skin, though."

The professor froze, as did the Headmaster and Miss Longueville, and the strip of skin slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor. Louise merely massaged the bridge of her nose for a moment before curiosity drew her eyes to the runes on the strip. After mere moments of tracing the spidery runes with her eyes, though, she had to look away, before the ache in her eyes got any worse.

Slowly, the professor leaned over to pick it up, and when he straightened up he held it as far away from himself as he could. "Y-you're welcome," he said weakly.

Miss Longueville just stared at Starfield with undisguised horror as the Headmaster rubbed his face wearily. _Heh, if that's enough to make him feel tired, he should try laying awake all night in between short bouts of nightmare-plagued sleep,_ Louise thought unsympathetically.

"Was that all, Professor Colbert?" the Headmaster asked in a voice that communicated how displeased he'd be if the professor answered in the negative. Unfortunately for him, well…

"What?" the professor asked before his mind deciphered his superior's words. "Oh, um, no, that's not actually why I brought them up here at all."

Headmaster Osmond gave the professor a long, hard stare, and his mouse familiar leapt up onto his desk to join in on the staring. "Really, now."

"Yes, um, I actually brought them here because of something Miss Starfield did a few minutes ago." The Headmaster motioned for him to continue. "Well, I observed Miss Montmorency and a couple of her friends speaking with Miss Vallière. I was too far away to hear what was said, but, um… Anyway, Miss Starfield suddenly lashed out with a whip of some kind, which wrapped around Miss Montmorency's neck. Miss Starfield then used her whip to drag her up onto one of the dining hall tables, where she proceeded to choke her and threaten her with a knife. I, of course, immediately moved to intervene, but Miss Starfield released her victim before I reached them."

"I… I see." The Headmaster sighed, then looked at Louise. "Miss Vallière, you simply must learn to keep your familiar in check if she is so prone to outbursts of violence like this. You-"

"Excuse me?" Starfield interrupted incredulously, drawing a sharp glance from the Headmaster. Unperturbed, she continued, "I am my own person, I'll have you know. I am not her servant, or slave, or anything like that."

"Well, technically, as her familiar, you are legally considered to just be an extension of her, and as such…" He flinched, heck we all did, and trailed off as she barked something in that awful, unknowable language of hers that she used to speak to her 'friends'. Dark green flesh gushed from the cut in her hand, building up into a sphere before forming the shape of what was either something like a flipper or a wide, round-tipped, blunt-edged sword. Dozens of razor-sharp teeth quickly formed along its edge, pushing it firmly into 'sword' territory. Then, with a low growl, the teeth began to move.

"Would you care to repeat that?" she asked slowly, raising the horrifying contraption of flesh and enamel to point it at him. The Headmaster went rather pale.

"I-in any case, Miss Vallière, I'm going to have to require that you and Miss Starfield give Miss Montmorency a formal, public apology."

"B-but sir!" Louise cried, before yawning hugely. Once it had passed, she saw that the Headmaster was frowning at her even as he kept glancing warily at Starfield's weapon, but she forged onwards. "But sir, Starfield was just defending me!"

"'Defending you'? From what, words?"

She grit her teeth as she swayed a little from exhaustion. "Sir, Montmorency, Zerbst, hell, most of the academy has been teasing and insulting me on an almost daily basis ever since I started here! Zerbst may have started it, but now practically everyone calls me," her tone turned bitter, "the 'Zero'."

"I, I see. I'll have this looked into, and should it prove to be serious, I will do my utmost to see it end." Starfield snorted derisively, but he did his best to ignore her, even as he continued to give her weapon nervous glances. "Even so, that is no reason to commit violence upon my students. That apology must happen by sundown tomorrow, you hear me."

"... Yes, sir," Louise replied grudgingly. "Will that be all, sir?"

"Yes, I believe that will be all for now. The two of you may go."

As Louise turned to leave, the Headmaster added, "Oh, and Miss Vallière? You might want to take the opportunity to get some rest. You look like you need it."

"I know," she growled, before marching out the door, Starfield following not long after.


	8. Backstab

Louise let out a weary sigh as the door closed behind us, then buried her face in her hands. "Oh Brimir why did I say all that?" she groaned.

I paused, then clipped my knife onto my belt before reaching over to awkwardly pat her on the shoulder. "I think went acceptably, all told."

She parted her fingers to glare at me, and in her eyes I saw the pain of wounded pride. "You would think that, wouldn't you," she replied after a pause. With a huff, she let her hands fall, then glanced at Aria. "Are you going to put that, uh, I mean, your friend away? Please?"

I, too, looked down at the contraption I'd crafted with Aria's help. I had no idea what whim had prompted me to make it, but, well, it had been made. I'd based it off of what little I knew about chainsaws, and honestly, while it was pretty decent for a first attempt, it was a pretty poor approximation of what I'd intended. I mean, it looked the part, from the outside, provided you ignored the fleshiness, but the "motor" was just a couple of finger-like appendages "walking" the belt along its greased track, and the speed at which they did so was rather lackluster. Maybe if I took the time to experiment with variations on the design? Maybe I should make more separate parts? Or maybe I should just give up and go for a sword-like design with vibrating, reciprocating-

Louise cleared her throat, startling me out of my thoughts, then gave the chainsaw attempt a significant look. I frowned. "Is that an order?"

Louise simply scowled back. "Of course not. It was a polite request."

The corner of my lips quirked up a little without my input, and I reversed the changes I'd made, allowing the belt of teeth to return to the rest of the mass. "Thank you, Aria. You can take it back, now." A part of me still giggled silently as Louise shuddered and looked away.

"Aww, but I didn't get to eat anything this time!" Aria complained good-naturedly as her flesh gradually slurped its way back through the cut in my palm, and once again, I chose not to heal it closed.

Chuckling, I relied, "Maybe next time." Focusing once more on Louise, I frowned. "Let's get you to bed, okay? You're no good to me if you're falling over from exhaustion."

She huffed with exaggerated irritation, then sighed. "Yeah, bed sounds really good right now." With that, she started descending the stairs, and I hurried after her, just in case she stumbled and I had to catch her.

 **.o.o.o.**

The two of us received a good few looks from other students who saw us as I escorted Louise to her bedroom. Many of the looks directed at me were angry, wary, or even outright frightened. Thankfully, nobody tried to stop us.

Once I had put her to bed, I was left with a good deal of time on my hands. After a few moment's consideration, I decided to return to that clearing I'd found the previous day to relax, try some stuff out with Aria, and generally have some fun with my friends.

Of course, when I tried to put that plan into action, I hit a snag.

I was partway across the courtyard, heading for the gate, when someone shouted something behind me. I did my best to ignore him and continue on my way. "Stand and fight, you brute!" he shouted as I continued to walk. "Or are you a coward as well?"

I didn't particularly care what this idiot boy thought of me, so I didn't stop. Eventually, though, I heard the sound of someone running on grass behind me, and a hand grasped my shoulder for the second time that day. I rounded on him in an irritated huff. "What!?" I demanded of him.

The blond, foppish-looking boy stepped back in surprise, before glaring at me with righteous anger. "You hurt my precious Monmon!" he shouted. "I demand satisfaction!"

"What?" I asked, before a thought occurred to me. "Like, in a duel or something?" He nodded, stepping back to brandish… was that an actual rose? I shook my head in confusion and disgust. "I don't feel like play-fighting with you right now. Run along, now." I made a shooing motion with my hand and turned to leave.

The blond grit his teeth and shouted, "So you are a coward! I should have expected Vallière's familiar to be just as useless as she is!"

Irritated but unmoved, I continued to walk calmly away, noting as I did that a good number of students had noticed his antics and were coming over to watch.

"Fine! If you won't stand and fight, I'll make you!" Curious, I looked over my shoulder to see him swipe his rose through the air as he said a few words. One of the rose's petals came loose and fluttered to the ground where, in a flash of light, a feminine, valkyrie-themed suit of armor bearing a spear arose.

My curiosity piqued, I turned fully around, but continued to walk backwards. "Neat trick," I said. "Now, what do you plan to do with it?"

"Be silent, commoner! I am Guiche de Gramont, my runic name is the Bronze, and I shall avenge my beloved! Valkyrie, attack!" The suit of armor started to move, rising a couple inches into the air where it hovered for a moment, then dashed towards me, its spear pointed at me.

I raised an eyebrow at the painfully telegraphed attack that even I, with my rather limited combat experience, could probably avoid. Given that the armor was leading with the sharp end of the spear, assuming this Guiche wasn't just incompetent, he was probably just trying to scare me as I scrambled out of the way. Of course, a sharp piece of metal didn't scare me, so I simply turned around again so the spear would hit me in the back where my halter-top shirt didn't cover it, so that my garment wouldn't get damaged.

I heard Guiche gasp, and I stumbled slightly as the spear sank deep into my back. "Aria, grab it and drag it through!" I ordered, and she chirped happily in response. The armor tried to pull the spear out of me, but it wouldn't budge, so it placed its other hand on my back and tried again. I glanced behind me as I watched it grasp the spear with both hands and plant a foot on my back as it tried once again, but once more it failed.

I stopped in my tracks and turned so the armor wouldn't block my view of Guiche, who was standing there frozen, his mouth hanging open and fear starting to appear in his eyes. Looking around, I saw that those other students who were close enough to have seen what had happened were also freaking out a little.

Finally, the armor lost the little tug-of-war and the spear was dragged from its grip and through my back and leaving the armor hanging there in midair as if unsure how to proceed. Guiche started to back away, only to stumble and fall on his rear. "You disappoint me," I said, then continued on my way towards the gate.


End file.
